The United States Department of Education is rescinding former President Joe Biden’s last-minute guidance that made name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation subject to Title IX, calling the previous guidance “profoundly unfair.”
Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor announced the decision in a statement on Wednesday.
NCAA volleyball pictured at the Division I Men’s Volleyball Championship held at the Walter Pyramid on May 4, 2019 in Long Beach, California. (John W. McDonough/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
“The NIL guidance, rammed through by the Biden Administration in its final days, is overly burdensome, profoundly unfair, and it goes well beyond what agency guidance is intended to achieve,” Trainor said.
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“Without a credible legal justification, the Biden Administration claimed that NIL agreements between schools and student athletes are akin to financial aid and must, therefore, be proportionately distributed between male and female athletes under Title IX. Enacted over 50 years ago, Title IX says nothing about how revenue-generating athletics programs should allocate compensation among student athletes.”
The previous nine-page memo released on Jan. 16, just days before President Donald Trump was due to take office, made NIL payments subject to Title IX regulations. Universities were told that NIL compensation must be treated like any other financial aid available to student-athletes, like scholarships, regardless of sex.
Then-President Joe Biden speaks during a speech at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 13. (AP/Susan Walsh)
“The claim that Title IX forces schools and colleges to distribute student-athlete revenues proportionately based on gender equity considerations is sweeping and would require clear legal authority to support it. That does not exist,” Trainor continued. “Accordingly, the Biden NIL guidance is rescinded.”
Title IX requires universities to offer financial aid proportionate to the number of students of each gender who play sports on campus. Under the previous guidance, men’s basketball and football were due to receive the bulk of those funds.
A Kentucky Wildcats flag is waved after a Wildcats’ touchdown during the college football game between the Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals on Nov. 25, 2023 at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. (Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Wednesday’s announcement comes one day after the Education Department urged the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations to strip the records and awards “misappropriated” by transgender athletes competing in girls and women’s sports and “restore” them to the athletes that missed out as a resulting of their participation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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